1 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:06,360 Greetings, greetings, greetings this morning. 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:09,640 Amen. In the House of the Lord, we're 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:13,240 going to stand today and turn to a New Testament scripture. 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,440 So glad to see each one of you and that you're in good health. 5 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,560 And if you had heat and water today, then you're doing great. 6 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:24,600 Maybe you had to put your toe outside the sheet and just check 7 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:26,680 it out before you stepped on the floor. 8 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:32,640 We typically sleep with a fan blowing quite forcefully, and it 9 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:34,320 feels good when you're under the covers. 10 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:38,440 And whenever I stepped totally out of that, I thought I was in 11 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:40,960 the Blizzard and I was just trying to get to the fan to turn 12 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:42,560 it off. Amen. 13 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:44,360 But it's good to be in the House of the Lord today. 14 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:48,600 First Thessalonians, First Thessalonians. 15 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:51,200 Thessalonians is just a great word to say in it. 16 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:54,920 First Thessalonians chapter #3 I want to read just a couple of 17 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,960 verses today. Amen. 18 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,760 We are in the great season here. Got a few things going on. 19 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,600 I hope you join us tonight for time of eating and fellowship 20 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,920 and some activities. I hope you come. 21 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:09,600 Amen. Please do so. 22 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,760 And as my wife said, if if you didn't get signed up to bring 23 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,160 something, come anyway. Even come anyway and be a part, 24 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,480 Amen. We'd love to have you and come 25 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:21,280 with that ugliest sweater you got. 26 00:01:21,960 --> 00:01:24,400 Just come on. Or maybe it's the most festive, 27 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,560 I don't know. However, we got a different 28 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,280 categories. Come participate. 29 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,480 You might not wear it anywhere else, but you can wear it here. 30 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:36,960 Yeah. And so we'll accept that First 31 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,920 Thessalonians chapter #3 just verse 12 and verse 13. 32 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:49,240 Today the Bible says, and the Lord make you to increase and 33 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:55,920 abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even 34 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:02,480 as we do toward you to the end. He may stablish your hearts 35 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:08,160 unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the 36 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:14,800 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His Saints. 37 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:20,560 Today I have simply called this holiness position and practice, 38 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,320 and not only by getting nervous because holiness involves a 39 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,160 whole lot, such a vast subject. You can't just talk about it in 40 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,680 one setting. And so it covers a whole lot, 41 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,640 Amen. And so this really kind of 42 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:38,440 piggybacks on our who do you belong to conversation we had 43 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:40,280 last week and a couple of weeks ago. 44 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:42,760 Amen. I want to stay in that for 45 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,480 today. Can we ask the Lord to just open 46 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:47,960 our hearts and minds today? Father, I love you. 47 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,600 God, we need you. Lord, your word is forever 48 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:55,640 established and it's true. Lord, open up our hearts and our 49 00:02:55,640 --> 00:02:59,360 lives today God to that word. I pray Jesus bless you. 50 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,560 People that are here, God have made an effort, Lord, to brave 51 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:04,760 the cold to be in the House of God today. 52 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,640 I know Lord Jesus that you'll return something to them, God, 53 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:11,400 for their faithfulness. Lord Jesus to your house. 54 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:14,200 God will not fail to thank you and praise you for what you 55 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,720 accomplished. In the lovely name of Jesus 56 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:21,880 Christ that I pray Amen and Amen the church say Amen Amen, you 57 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:24,280 may be seated today in Jesus name. 58 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,360 I kind of prefaced what I said because I understand that there 59 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:34,200 are many feelings provoked whenever someone mentions the 60 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:38,920 word holiness or holy. And some of those feelings may 61 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:43,680 just be the result, perhaps of some misunderstandings about the 62 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:48,080 holiness of God or our holy God. I would dare to say this morning 63 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,520 that there wouldn't have been anybody leery here today if I 64 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:54,440 said we were going to prod into the meaning of love today 65 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,000 because we know, according to Scripture, first, John tells us 66 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,560 that God is love. But just as emphatic and as 67 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,520 direct as that statement is that God is love, the Bible also 68 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:12,640 records that God is holy. So matter of fact, in this text 69 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:17,600 today that we read, we see that the Scripture kinds of binds a 70 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,760 little bit of love and holiness together with one another. 71 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:23,800 Love, love and holiness. And many times people describe 72 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,480 them as the attributes of God that I see it God is love, God, 73 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,960 he is holy. It's not just an attribute so 74 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:32,040 much it's the very nature of God. 75 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,440 It's, it's who he is. And it's interesting again, our 76 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,240 text joins right here in verse 12, it speaks of love. 77 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,160 And then verse 13, it speaks of holiness in these new 78 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,560 consecutive verses. The Bible tells us in our text 79 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:50,280 that that the Lord makes us increase and abound in love with 80 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,000 a goal in mind. This was the goal for making us 81 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,160 increase and abound in love. The goal in mind to the end that 82 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:01,640 we may be established or established our hearts blameless 83 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:06,080 or unblameable in holiness at the coming of the Lord Jesus 84 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:09,720 Christ. So again the the subject of love 85 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:14,360 it it's just too vast to just the divine by defined by the 86 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:17,600 words unconditional love. The love of God is too vast just 87 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:22,080 to call it unconditional love, but also holiness is too vast 88 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,480 just to define it as God's sinless perfection. 89 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,680 Because neither of these just aptly describe what love is or 90 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,120 holiness is in their entirety. Amen. 91 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:37,520 We can talk about holiness as being a separation from sin and 92 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:42,240 a dedication to God and all of those things that we say that I 93 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,080 have said already about love and about holiness, they're 94 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,880 absolutely true, but it's not the entirety. 95 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,360 It's not the completion of the whole picture of everything 96 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,200 there is to be said. When you look in your Bibles 97 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,600 from Genesis to Revelation, the terms holy and holiness, 98 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:00,400 sometimes as people read them, mean different things to 99 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,480 different individuals. And I believe that's the reason 100 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,440 why there's somewhat of a controversy today because we 101 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,920 come up with our own concept or idea about what holy is 102 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:13,400 concerning God or what holiness is concerning God. 103 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:16,840 But the Bible tells us that holiness is a very clear, 104 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:20,360 significant topic in Scripture. As a matter of fact, I just did 105 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,000 a little run on it. I was using my Little E Sword 106 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,600 Bible program. And the word holy is found one 107 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,440 611 times in the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. 108 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:37,440 To put that in perspective, the word love is found 311 times 109 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:42,080 from Genesis to Revelation. We see that in our text that one 110 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:47,200 of the purposes of our growth in love is having our hearts 111 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:51,880 established, unblameable Brother Reese in holiness whenever the 112 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,160 Lord Jesus Christ returns. Amen. 113 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,720 That means when it comes to being holy, every one of us then 114 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:03,640 got to be careful of not not to miss anything, Amen. 115 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:05,840 I want to have a good understanding of it. 116 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:07,600 I don't want anything to be missed. 117 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:09,880 Amen. I want to know everything there 118 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,440 is to know about holiness because He wants me to be 119 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,720 unblameable at His return in that regard. 120 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,040 And so to understand everything there is about the holiness of 121 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,560 God, it's necessary to look about a few different 122 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,240 perspectives of holiness. And we will not get through them 123 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,920 all today. But number one, we got to look 124 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:33,680 at the difference between God's holiness and our holiness, God's 125 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:37,400 holiness and our holiness #2 we got to look at today the 126 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:41,400 difference between the holiness that we acquire, the moment that 127 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:44,480 we've been born again of the water of the Spirit and God's 128 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:47,360 Spirit comes inside of us. The holiness that we acquire at 129 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:50,840 that moment, and then the holiness that we express through 130 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:56,040 the life that we live #3 we got to look at the differences 131 00:07:56,040 --> 00:08:00,320 between external holiness and internal holiness when we talk 132 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:04,040 about stewardship of our attitudes, stewardship of our 133 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:08,280 emotions, stewardship, if you will, of our physical externals. 134 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:09,680 Amen. All of these things. 135 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,600 And so with that, today, I think it, we need to dig in just a 136 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:16,240 little bit and see what, what exactly does holiness mean? 137 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:18,600 What does the Bible, Let's put it in those terms. 138 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,520 What does the Bible mean by the word holiness? 139 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,080 Well, and I'm throwing little, little Hebrew and Greek language 140 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:28,520 here. You today your Bible, the Old 141 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:30,800 Testament was written in the Hebrew language, in the New 142 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:34,120 Testament, the Greek language. But the Hebrew word translated 143 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:38,600 holy in the Old Testament was known as kadosh, and the Greek 144 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:41,120 word used in the New Testament was hagios. 145 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:45,840 Our English word then that we have is the word holy. 146 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,280 The word that we use holy today in our English language actually 147 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,040 came from a German root word, which was Hal. 148 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:57,240 All right, that's where we get the words that we use today in 149 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,600 our English language as whole and health. 150 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:05,680 There's a, there is a tie of holiness to wholeness and the 151 00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:09,160 healthiness. This is also the root of the 152 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:13,400 German expression, what we call today as hell, right? 153 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,080 It's an expression where we are are telling a person that we 154 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,880 would help them and wish them to have good health or happiness or 155 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:22,320 good luck to hell. And so when we look at all this, 156 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,240 even there's a, there's another connection to the Hebrew word 157 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:29,320 and you have it in the word Hallelujah, Hallel, which means 158 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,240 to praise. Hallelujah means praise the 159 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:34,520 Lord. So we see all of this concerning 160 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:38,160 the word holiness. We see wholeness, we see health, 161 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:43,200 we see happiness, we see praise. All these things are in the idea 162 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:45,600 of holiness in its general sense. 163 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,760 And so that that's a lot of positive factors. 164 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:50,640 Brother Fred, when I think of health and holiness and things 165 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:54,200 of that nature, Amen. Positive impact for a believer, 166 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:56,840 Amen. For God himself, a life of 167 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:59,040 holiness. But when you get into looking a 168 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:03,000 little bit at narrow meanings of, of the word holy or holiness 169 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,840 in the Bible, Amen. What it means to say to someone 170 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,720 or something, whether it calls something holy or someone holy, 171 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,120 Amen. We get the idea from Scripture 172 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:16,920 many times in Scripture. I've said this probably a 173 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:20,640 gazillion times it seems like. But whenever a word is first 174 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,840 used in Scripture is the beginning of the meaning of that 175 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:27,600 word in the Bible, it's, it's like it's purest meaning. 176 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,840 And we go yes to the book of Genesis chapter #2 for this 177 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:34,560 meeting. The Bible says in Genesis 2 and 178 00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:39,680 verse #2 on the 7th day God ended his work which he had 179 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:44,520 made, and he rested on the 7th day from all his work which he 180 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:48,240 had made. And God blessed the 7th day and 181 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,560 sanctified. Everybody say sanctified. 182 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:55,080 The word sanctified is used, but the Hebrew word that it comes 183 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:59,240 from a lot of times is translated holy in our English 184 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:01,280 Bibles. So this is really the first 185 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:04,920 occurrence, sanctification, holy, same thing right here in 186 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:08,640 Scripture because that in it he had rested from all his work 187 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:12,160 which God had made. And so we have this word holy. 188 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,760 It's a matter of fact, to understand sanctified means 189 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:16,960 holy. It's later in the book of Exodus 190 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:21,360 chapter #20 whenever the the 10 commandments are being listed, 191 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:27,560 that God tells Israel, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 192 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,480 So after creation was finished, after the fowl, the air, the 193 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:35,680 beast of the field, all these things were finished, man and 194 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:38,720 woman was created. The Bible tells us that God set 195 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:44,840 the 7th day apart from the other six days, because the other six 196 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:49,200 days were all used for common labor of creation, of the things 197 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:51,760 that would be in the water, the things that would be in the sky, 198 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:55,520 the things that would be up on the land, humanity and animals 199 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,320 and beasts and creeping things. All these other days were for 200 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:03,080 common labor. But the 7th day was different. 201 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:08,960 The 7th day was set apart as a day of rest Amen. 202 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:13,520 And so this tells us that there can be even particular times, as 203 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:18,360 it was here in the book of Genesis, set aside or deemed as 204 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,320 holy unto the Lord. And so in order for the people 205 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,800 to keep it holy that the commandments told us of, then 206 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:29,600 they would set this day apart and make it distinct and 207 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:32,800 different from every other day of their life for the purpose of 208 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:37,360 setting aside time of seizing from their labor and turning 209 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,520 their attention toward God. It wasn't that all the other 210 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:44,120 days were evil. It's just all the other days 211 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,640 weren't holy because they weren't set aside for a 212 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:51,560 particular use and for a particular purpose. 213 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,480 And so that seventh day was dedicated to the Lord. 214 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:58,080 And being dedicated to the Lord, it was different then from all 215 00:12:58,080 --> 00:12:59,400 others. It made it special. 216 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,960 It made it, if you will, holy. When we read in the book of 217 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,320 Exodus chapter #3 we read an episode even with Moses. 218 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,520 Many of you will remember it. It's a quite popular passage of 219 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,200 scripture. Moses encountered God. 220 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:15,520 He was watching over his Father in law's sheep on the backside 221 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:18,320 of the desert. His eye was caught by something 222 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:20,400 that was not typical for him to catch. 223 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:23,360 And it was a Bush that was burning, but it wasn't being 224 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,080 consumed. And the Bible says in Exodus 3 225 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,280 and verse 4. And when the Lord saw that he 226 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:32,680 turned aside, speaking to Moses, He turned aside to see God 227 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:36,720 called unto him, that is Moses out of the midst of the Bush, 228 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,200 and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 229 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:45,480 And he said, Draw not nigh, hit her, put off thy shoes from off 230 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,560 thy feet. For the place where upon thou 231 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:54,680 standest is holy ground. So we sing that a time could be 232 00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:58,720 set aside as holy, but now we have a place that can be set 233 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:01,800 aside as holy. He's saying, Moses, take you, 234 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:04,200 take your shoes off. Because this ground isn't like 235 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:06,120 all the other ground of the desert right here. 236 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:08,360 This is special ground. I want you to honor this. 237 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:10,320 This is special right here. Take your shoes off. 238 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:12,920 Show, show some respect for this ground. 239 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:15,600 Amen. Whenever you come here because 240 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:19,760 God wanted him to know this ground has been visited and 241 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:24,520 touched by me, and since it's been visited and touched by me, 242 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:26,360 it's not like every other ground. 243 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:30,120 It's had my touch upon it, all right. 244 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:32,560 And so this, this is holy ground. 245 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:37,000 This this particular place is holy because I have touched it. 246 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:40,880 And so there's this idea of holiness, of course, in 247 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:45,280 association and connection with a holy God. 248 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:49,680 Hey man, in the prophet Isaiah book in your Bible, Isaiah 249 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,200 alone, in Isaiah alone there about 30 times that God is 250 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:01,280 simply called this the Holy one 30 times and Isaiah he's called 251 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:05,000 the Holy One. For example, example, Isaiah 43 252 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,400 and verse three, he says for I am the Lord, thy God, the Holy 253 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:16,760 One of Israel, thy Savior. And Isaiah 48 and verse #17 he 254 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:19,640 says thus saith the Lord. And I like this because this 255 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:21,600 kind of ties back to who do you belong to? 256 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,760 Thus said the Lord thy Redeemer. Remember redeeming, buying back 257 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,480 some have been sold, or taking buying back something that used 258 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:32,680 to belong. Thus said the Lord thy Redeemer, 259 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:39,560 the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord, I am the Lord thy God. 260 00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:43,200 And so we see many times in Scripture that holy or holiness 261 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:48,200 is, is associated with God. So much in the Bible, again, not 262 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,240 just an attribute of God, but it is God. 263 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:55,560 God is holy. And so we cannot, I believe from 264 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,480 Genesis to Revelation, if you were to read it, I mean, 611 265 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:03,240 times it's mentioned, you cannot separate the God of the Bible 266 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,400 from the concept of holiness. He cannot do it. 267 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:08,960 God is holy, It's his very nature. 268 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:12,800 And he, the Redeemer, the one who bought me, He's the holy 269 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,080 one. Whenever you get out all these 270 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,520 little dictionaries about the Hebrew language and you look 271 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:22,840 through them and look at the root word of holiness, Kadosh, 272 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:30,200 it means pure God is a holy God. He is a divine pure God. 273 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:34,600 Amen. There, there is no, there is no 274 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:40,480 uncleanliness about our God. God is pure in his moral 275 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,680 character. God is pure in all the ethics of 276 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:48,160 his attributes. His words, his acts are pure. 277 00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:51,960 His thoughts are pure. His attitudes, his modus, his 278 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:55,440 judgments, all of those things are pure. 279 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:58,920 As a matter of fact, when we talk about God, it's an absolute 280 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:01,520 purity. Brother Trout, he's perfect, 281 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,920 could find no fault with him. That's the reason when God made 282 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,040 himself abide and came among us as Jesus Christ, and he was even 283 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:14,040 before the trial pilot, before he's crucified, I find no fault 284 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:19,240 with him. He's absolute purity without 285 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:24,520 blemish, no imperfection. All right, This is the God that 286 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:26,400 I'm talking about. As a matter of fact, the Bible 287 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,400 says in first John one and five Speaking of this God, God is 288 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:33,160 love, God is holy, God is light, and in him is no darkness at 289 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:36,400 all. John said it also describes him. 290 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:41,080 The Bible says in James One that he is the Father of lights with 291 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,120 whom is no variableness, neither any shadow of turning. 292 00:17:44,120 --> 00:17:47,600 It's again speaking to the absoluteness of the purity and 293 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,280 the honor of our God. And so it indicates us that 294 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:56,080 God's holiness, His purity, His perfection, this pure light come 295 00:17:56,080 --> 00:18:00,040 in the darkness. There's none like him. 296 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:07,000 He alone is holy, but the one who is truly holy, blameless in 297 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:13,120 holiness, has provided them for us an example, an example about 298 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:19,120 what it means to be holy. Jesus said in Saint John 319. 299 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:23,400 And this is the condemnation that light is come into the 300 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:26,720 world, and men love darkness rather than light because their 301 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:32,440 deeds were evil in a very practical sense this morning. 302 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:38,560 Holy means to be separated, separated from what's unclean, 303 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:43,280 separated from what's impure. Or if we could say it like this, 304 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:49,440 it means then to be dedicated to everything that is holy and 305 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,120 dedicated to everything that is pure. 306 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,760 So since God is the absolute representation of what holiness 307 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:02,360 is, then it's God who sets the boundary line of what is holy 308 00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:04,680 and what isn't holy. Because nobody. 309 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:09,600 We could all have opinions. You might be 7 days from Sunday 310 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,240 what those opinions are, but only he who is absolutely holy 311 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,840 knows where appropriately to put the line, Amen. 312 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:24,080 So we know that none of us are exactly like God. 313 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:29,720 When I received the Holy Ghost, I received the Holy Spirit in my 314 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,760 life, right? And I'm either submitting to 315 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:37,920 that Spirit I received on some days and other days, Amber, I 316 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:42,880 kind of go my own way, right? And I feel conviction because 317 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:46,440 that Holy Spirit's like, and I'm like, talk to the hand because 318 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:48,360 the face ain't listening. I'm going to do what I want to 319 00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:50,920 do, you know, type of scenario. Hey, man. 320 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,200 And so none of us have absolute holiness. 321 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:57,240 None of us are absolutely pure or absolutely perfect. 322 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:01,040 The Apostle Paul described as having the Holy Ghost, as having 323 00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:04,400 this glorious treasure, but it's in this earthen vessel. 324 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,160 It's in this earthen vessel. And so we fall short and 325 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:12,200 sometimes we have selfish motives and selfish ideas and 326 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,920 sometimes, I'll speak for myself, we get bad attitudes. 327 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:21,400 Good case in point, Tatum. Wednesday night, my daughter 328 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,760 locked her keys in her car for the second time. 329 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:29,840 Within probably a month, both of her, both of her car fobs was in 330 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:31,360 the car. That's the way it was last time. 331 00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:34,920 Her only key is in the car. The first time I went to her 332 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,160 workplace and fished with a coat hanger for about an hour or so 333 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,480 in the bitter core code to get it out. 334 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:44,240 Wednesday night, it was that again, except the other side. 335 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,440 I became so frustrated. I had a bad attitude. 336 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:52,560 I'm just telling you, I, I, I'd mess with that for so long, got 337 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:54,840 the keys right there that there was no way they were all going 338 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,520 to come out. I had a bad attitude. 339 00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:00,720 I know, Fred, but you'd worked all day. 340 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,400 I thought about it. You worked all day and I wasn't 341 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:06,640 going to do that to you. I know you would have, but I 342 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,240 just decided I'd get the bad attitude for you so you could 343 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:16,000 sleep. I had a bad attitude. 344 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:22,120 I wasn't holy in that moment. I'm just telling you I was not 345 00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:25,360 holy in that moment. Because we all say and do things 346 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:28,160 sometimes that are not in harmony with the character of 347 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:30,520 God, that pure, absolute holiness. 348 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,600 Hey, man, cut. When we talk about God's 349 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:37,920 absolute holiness, we do talk. It's something, right? 350 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:39,160 That's separate. It's set aside. 351 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,440 That's the reason why holiness in today's world is so bizarre, 352 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:46,240 because it doesn't fit the mode of regular society. 353 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:51,600 It's set apart. It's distinct, it's different. 354 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:55,640 It's noticeably different. Come on. 355 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:56,360 Yes, that's right. Amen. 356 00:21:56,360 --> 00:21:59,960 In other words, because God is absolutely pure and we are not, 357 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:03,760 His Holiness is different from mine. 358 00:22:04,360 --> 00:22:07,720 I'm aspiring. That's a go. 359 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:09,960 That's a high mark I'm working toward. 360 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,360 I'll let me put it in this way. I'll never reach there till the 361 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:17,160 day of rapture. Until we are like Him. 362 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:19,560 It doesn't. The Bible says it does not yet 363 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:23,040 appear what we shall be, but we shall be like Him in that 364 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:28,240 moment. So yeah, I'm strive, but that 365 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:30,800 doesn't keep me from striving. That doesn't keep me from 366 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,960 pressing toward the mark of a high prize and the calling of 367 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:36,760 the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is definitely His Holiness 368 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:40,440 is separate from me and then different from me, but it's 369 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:42,800 something to it's something to strive for. 370 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,800 That's the reason why some of the Hebrew Bibles translate 371 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:49,240 that, that kadosh or that holiness as different. 372 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,480 As a matter of fact, one Jewish translation of Leviticus 19 two 373 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,600 says it like this. It says you shall be different, 374 00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:58,520 for I the Lord your God am different. 375 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,840 In our English Bibles it is that the Lord is holy, and so you'll 376 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:04,960 be holy. But it says in one of the Jewish 377 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,280 translations that you'll be different, for the Lord your God 378 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:11,040 is different. That could also just as easily 379 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:13,640 be translated. You shall be pure for the Lord 380 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,800 your God is pure, or you shall be set apart because the Lord 381 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,560 your God is set apart. All of these are legitimate 382 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:27,480 standings of His Holiness. So I'm, I'm as a believer, I'm 383 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:35,720 in pursuit of holiness. And as you pursue holiness and 384 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:40,000 pursue the Lord who is absolute, pure and different from society 385 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,320 and everything else, you will become different than the world 386 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:47,080 that you live in. Amen. 387 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:55,040 Because our society deems different values than the values 388 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:58,760 of the Lord what God sees as holy. 389 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,120 Most of our society, and it runs the gamut, even an attitude and 390 00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:05,640 all kinds of things. Most of our society would say 391 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,760 it's just not relevant, all right. 392 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,560 But the Bible says and tells us that God's values, his ways 393 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,560 again, are ways that are higher than our ways. 394 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,680 His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, more noble, 395 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,960 transcendent values. That's why the Bible says that 396 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:29,400 this is a tremendous verse. But in Proverbs 1524, it says 397 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:35,000 this. The way of life is above to the 398 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,960 wise. And if you read Proverbs 15, I 399 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,800 want to, I want to define this for you. 400 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:41,880 The wise. Is it like the wise that we 401 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,000 think of right now? Somebody intellect, intellect 402 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,080 intellectually, I can't even talk this morning. 403 00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:56,430 Someone that's smart. All of my family is just just 404 00:24:56,430 --> 00:24:58,830 adoring the fact that they're related to me right now. 405 00:24:58,830 --> 00:25:05,430 I'm just, they said, have you practiced the word stupid 406 00:25:05,430 --> 00:25:10,160 lately? I'm just, you know, Sister Cox, 407 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:16,040 come on, help me out here. It's not wise doesn't 408 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,840 necessarily equate with intellect, right? 409 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:23,720 Or being smart in Proverbs 15. It's the wise in Proverbs in 410 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,120 general. The wise are the ones who align 411 00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:31,800 themselves with the ways of God. So reading it in that with that 412 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:37,120 understanding, the way of life is above to the wise, the way of 413 00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:40,560 life is above to those that are trying to align themselves with 414 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:45,280 the ways of God, that He may depart from the hell beneath. 415 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,720 That's awesome. When we say God is holy, and 416 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,640 that means He is perfectly and absolutely pure, without spot or 417 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:57,760 blemish or any kind, separated and different from anyone else. 418 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,600 Amen. And even as a creator, His own 419 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,560 holiness indicates to us that He is separate and different from 420 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,600 His creation. He is. 421 00:26:08,120 --> 00:26:12,680 He's the creator made us separate and different. 422 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,560 It's just like a painter. A paint is separate and 423 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,240 different from his painting. There are fingerprints. 424 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:23,200 There are things in the painting that indicate who the painter 425 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:27,840 is, but it's not just like the painter, Amen. 426 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:31,120 All of us are part of the pain. All of us are part of creation, 427 00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:33,840 but God is the painter, He is the Creator, and he has 428 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,400 fingerprints of himself upon and in our lives. 429 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,880 So when we talk about God's holiness and our holiness, there 430 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:45,040 is a difference between US and Him. 431 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,760 When we think about in the human realm, holiness can be thought 432 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:54,200 as the attributes that God manifests in the life of a 433 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:59,320 believer. That means my holiness must be 434 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:03,760 modeled after God's holy. He's the standard. 435 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:13,240 You know, you know, if if a dollar because that's bad today, 436 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,920 I guess sooner or later I think dollars will be out of 437 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,760 circulation. But whatever it is a 20, if 438 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,600 there was a different standard for our money and there it 439 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,640 varied all within the United States what that standard was, 440 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,840 then the value of that is up. It's every which way. 441 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:31,240 We could not do commerce, we could not do business because 442 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,120 there was no standard that we can go back to as a guy that 443 00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:40,320 says this is this is what $20 is be no use if it was left up to 444 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,560 everybody's own idea and concept. 445 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:47,280 Well, likewise with holiness, there's must be a standard and 446 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,680 the standard is God because we can't live. 447 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,440 We can't live without there being some type of standard, 448 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,560 some type, if you will, common ground that says this, this is 449 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,160 the way it is. And so our holiness then is not 450 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:06,200 be based upon my thoughts or my ideas or my, my, what I believe 451 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,280 that should be or how I define that. 452 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,720 No, it's what God defines it to be. 453 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,760 Hey man, because when I understand, whenever I first 454 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:18,840 come to the Lord and I'm filled with His Holy Spirit, I'm 455 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,760 anointed with His Holy Spirit, so to speak. 456 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,320 Amen. It develops inside of me them a 457 00:28:25,360 --> 00:28:30,800 longing for a pursuit of more of what I have experienced, right? 458 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:32,640 Of more of what I've experienced. 459 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:37,000 David describes the difference between our holiness and God's 460 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,840 holiness just in a couple of verses of the Psalm. 461 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,600 Psalm chapter #18 and verse #30 look at this. 462 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,200 As for, and I'm just going to read a segment of it, Brother 463 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,240 Zach. But As for God, his way is 464 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:54,720 everybody say is, is perfect. It is perfect. 465 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:59,240 Look at that. If we go to the 32nd verse just 466 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:04,520 a couple down, the Bible says it is God that girdeth or arms me 467 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:09,880 with strength and maketh. Everybody say maketh my way 468 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,680 perfect. Here's the big difference. 469 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:19,600 God is, and God's trying to help me make my way perfect. 470 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:24,240 His way is perfect and I'm on the journey in it. 471 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:26,360 And God is making. God is helping. 472 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,280 God is enabling, God is empowering. 473 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:34,520 God is. He is, but I'm in process. 474 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,520 That's the difference between our holiness and his is already 475 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:41,880 founded. His is already established. 476 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,600 It's trying to be established in my life. 477 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,200 His is already a said and done finished work. 478 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,920 I'm in process. Amen. 479 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,000 So I need to be made, but there's something that Donuts. 480 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,680 It's kind of like the Potter and the clay scenario, right? 481 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,920 I need to be made. I need to be formed. 482 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,120 I need to be formed. Amen. 483 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,720 So God is working in our lives and it is I mean, and this is 484 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,200 not my my notes today and I'm having problems talking this 485 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,000 morning. I probably just need some food 486 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,040 tonight. That's what it is. 487 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,880 I'm just going to, I'm up here in delirious and it's just 488 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,960 really bad. And but the Bible tells us, 489 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaking of Scripture in, in Philippians chapter #4 I believe 490 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,880 it is talking about where you work out your own salvation with 491 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:34,200 fear and trembling. It might be Philippians chapter 492 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,680 #2 but it says you work out your own salvation with fear and 493 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:39,320 trembling. We're like, oh, I work out my 494 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:41,720 own salvation. But the very next verse tells us 495 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:47,320 it is God in you. It's God in you working it out. 496 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,360 And so when you get that holy one, that Holy Spirit inside of 497 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,960 you, the way that your salvation is worked out is by him working 498 00:30:54,960 --> 00:31:00,040 through that Spirit that you receive, working through you. 499 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,240 It's not in my notes, but it's in the book of Philippians, 500 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:03,960 Amen. My wife can probably find it 501 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,400 while I continue, Amen, teaching this morning. 502 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,200 But whenever we consider this now, so that God's holiness is 503 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,080 different, my holiness, bar none, yes. 504 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,520 But there is also a difference between what we'll call today 505 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,120 that holiness that we received the moment that we're born again 506 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,720 in the water and the Spirit. Because the Bible tells us in 507 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,240 the book of Corinthians that he imputes his righteousness to us, 508 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,880 imputes his righteousness to us in a moment, and then what we 509 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:36,240 live out in our daily lives. All right, so you got to think 510 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,080 in a couple of dimensions this morning. 511 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,280 Again, we have a spiritual position in God when we're born 512 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:46,640 again of the water and the Spirit at our new birth in a 513 00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:51,040 moment of time and our our sins have been cleansed by the watery 514 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,960 grave of baptism because we went down to the lovely name of the 515 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,000 Lord Jesus Christ. And whenever we receive his 516 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,280 spirit inside of us, right, the gift of God, the Holy Ghost 517 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,880 inside of us and that is signaled and, and and evidenced 518 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,440 and uttered. Amen with other tongues that you 519 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:10,200 were not taught to speak or say. It's not like some of the 520 00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,280 language you have, but it's the empowerment of the Holy Ghost. 521 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,000 Then we stand before God as holy ones. 522 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:21,920 He's imputed His righteousness unto us, but how many here ever 523 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:30,080 received the Holy Ghost and still had some unholy way by an 524 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,680 act of God? I'm washed by act of God. 525 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:38,040 I'm called His positionally because He imputed His 526 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,160 righteousness to me positionally. 527 00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:45,720 I am holy before the Lord, but there's another holiness, and 528 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:51,400 that's how we live and what we do with our lives after we 529 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:53,000 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 530 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,920 So I've been made holy by the new birth. 531 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:59,920 But then I got to learn the ways of the Lord, the model of the 532 00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:05,240 Lord, to put in practice, to put in practice Scripture. 533 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:07,760 Amen. In his spirit, the Bible says in 534 00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:12,040 Hebrews 12 and verse #14 Paul writes and says follow everybody 535 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,360 say follow. Or we could use the word pursue 536 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:21,400 peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see 537 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:23,960 the Lord. Paul also wrote in 2nd 538 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:27,160 Corinthians 7 and verse #1 Brother Zach there, I'm just 539 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,160 using the last phrase there. He says, but let us cleanse 540 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:35,400 ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 541 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,560 holiness in the fear of God. Wait, wait, wait, wait. 542 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,720 Let us Paul speaking to the church at Corinth, Let us 543 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,800 cleanse ourselves. I was cleansed whenever I He 544 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,720 washed me in the watery grave of baptism. 545 00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:47,000 He did all this. I was holy. 546 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,480 Yes, you were positionally, but there is also an applied 547 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:52,720 holiness. That is a journey. 548 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,720 That is a journey. Holiness is absolutely granted 549 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:02,160 by God through your new birth. But then it is continued to be 550 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:06,800 pursued and followed after in our lives. 551 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:10,560 It's an applied holiness. Just just imagine with me for a 552 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:12,320 moment, and I'm being mindful here. 553 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,400 Imagine me just for a moment that that you have some very 554 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,560 expensive liquid that you would like to display and one of the 555 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,040 old classic Coca-Cola bottles somewhere around the 1950s. 556 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:26,159 Brother Fred, you just like to do that this expensive liquid 557 00:34:26,159 --> 00:34:31,760 and what's so just exquisite and neat about this, this this 558 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:36,080 liquid is that it sparkles like stars on a cloudless night that 559 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,840 that is just that's just the way that it performs. 560 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,400 And so you go to a garbage dump and you find a pile of old 561 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,639 bottles and you're looking them over very carefully and a lot of 562 00:34:46,639 --> 00:34:50,159 them are caked with dirt both on the inside and the outside. 563 00:34:50,159 --> 00:34:52,679 And you finally found one that you believe is potential. 564 00:34:52,679 --> 00:34:56,159 So you take it and you take it to the proprietor of the dump 565 00:34:56,159 --> 00:34:58,320 and it's a dirty bottle over and over. 566 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,800 But he dollars, yeah, it's going to cost $10,000. 567 00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:05,680 Well, price seems just a little ridiculous, but you pay it 568 00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,400 because you have the money and you want that particular bottle. 569 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:12,000 And so then you take the bottle home and you go clean it up 570 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,600 because you're putting this just expensive, just neat, just 571 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,760 fabulous liquid that you want others to see inside the bottle. 572 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:22,120 And so the first thing you do, I mean, they use Dawn to clean, 573 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,240 you know, oily animals. It's been in oil spills. 574 00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:26,680 You get your little Dawn bottle out and you put some squirts in 575 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,200 there and you got your little, you know, bottle brush and 576 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,280 you're cleaning that little thing and you rinse it. 577 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,320 I thought, man, the inside, that's clean enough now to hold 578 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,880 this sparkly substance and you're about ready to pour it 579 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:39,520 in. But then you realize the outside 580 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:43,920 isn't clean and what's good for the inside to be all clean and 581 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,400 me put this sparkly substance in there when they're still not 582 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:53,960 going to be able to see it. This is expensive stuff and it 583 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:59,000 has such a radiance and the insights clean, but nobody's 584 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:03,560 still going to appreciate what's there because I don't have the 585 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:05,960 outside clean. And so after all, you just begin 586 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,120 to scrub down the outside as well, and you do it. 587 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,760 And when it's all said and done, here is a bottle that that's 588 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,880 transparent enough or both inside and outside clean enough. 589 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,520 And you put this expensive liquid in that you wanted 590 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,080 everybody to see and now they can see because there's a 591 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:26,560 holiness both internally and externally. 592 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:31,720 Amen. Here's the fact of the matter. 593 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,880 The moment that this individual grabbed the bottle from the 594 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,880 dump, listen to me, it became holy in the sense it was set 595 00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:47,240 apart. It was set apart from the 596 00:36:47,240 --> 00:36:48,880 grouping of all the other bottles. 597 00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:54,800 It was separated. And then he started to dedicate 598 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,480 it to his purpose of what he wanted. 599 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:02,680 Again, under score, the idea of holiness, it's a great picture 600 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,840 of when a person is born again. God puts a spirit on you. 601 00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:12,240 He sets you apart, his blood. You become God's property, 602 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:17,680 separated from all the rest of humanity and dedicated to God 603 00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:22,680 for his purpose. But if He puts a spirit in US 604 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:27,920 and that's all that happens, He really wants to let our light 605 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:34,280 shine before men, that they might see our good works and 606 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:36,920 glory our fire, our Father, which is in. 607 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,160 But if that spirit gets inside of me, and all the mechanics of 608 00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:46,720 my external life are the same that my outer life has always 609 00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:53,640 been, how's any attention going to come to the change that's 610 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:57,840 happened on the inside of you? Hallelujah, Amen. 611 00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:03,880 And so there is a washing, there is a process, Amen, of holiness 612 00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:09,200 that takes place in our everyday lives so that glorious light can 613 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,120 go beyond, if you will, the clutter of the light that we 614 00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:14,280 once knew. The Paul wrote to through the 615 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:16,520 Corinthians again, he told them look at this in First 616 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,880 Corinthians one and verse #2 Brother Zach, the Bible says 617 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:24,200 unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth to them that are 618 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:27,800 sanctified or made holy or set apart in Jesus Jesus Christ, 619 00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:31,240 called to be Saints, called to be the holy ones. 620 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:33,960 I'm not just sanctified you, I want you to be holy. 621 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,560 I'm not just set you apart. I want you to live the life 622 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:38,400 again. That's the reason why I told us 623 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,880 to cleanse ourselves of the flesh and the spirit. 624 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,280 We looked at this just last week. 625 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:46,760 It's an external and an internal flesh and spirit. 626 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:51,520 So we're made holy through the new birth, but I need cleaned. 627 00:38:51,720 --> 00:38:54,120 There needs to be a cleansing of the flesh, a cleansing of the 628 00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:57,480 spirit. They need to be perfect and 629 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,080 again, the idea perfect in Scripture, we think, Brother 630 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:01,760 McGee, there's no one perfect that's right. 631 00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:06,360 But perfection in Scripture oftimes relates to completion or 632 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:12,520 a finished work. So the story of the bottle 633 00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:14,760 really shows holiness in a couple of ways. 634 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:17,520 One has to do with our new birth. 635 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,800 God saved us. Now we belong to him, right? 636 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:26,640 I am his, I'm holy positionally, but then there's a second aspect 637 00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:30,400 where we're living and on a journey and we're being made and 638 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:34,440 more progressively becoming more holy through a cleansing of 639 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:38,680 ourselves, of flesh and spirit. New Testament word for it is a 640 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,600 big word. They call it sanctification, but 641 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:45,680 that's what it is. That setting apartness 1 happens 642 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,280 in an instant. Our position with God. 643 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:53,680 One happens over a lifetime. Amen. 644 00:39:55,680 --> 00:40:00,720 God starts the process. God starts the process. 645 00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:04,680 But you see in Scripture, there's times he says that we 646 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:06,920 got to separate ourselves and there are other times it says he 647 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,240 separated us. It's not contradictory. 648 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:13,000 We both have a hand in this holiness journey. 649 00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:19,000 We both have a hand. I'm going to say, man, staying 650 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,280 with me this morning. I'm mindful of your time here. 651 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:29,840 But this is for sure true. God's holiness, our holiness, 652 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,480 all these things. It's not some just like a relic 653 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:36,360 of some some generation of time pass. 654 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:41,360 Neither is holiness just some narrow set of external rules. 655 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:49,720 Holiness is the radiant, the absolute holiness of God that's 656 00:40:49,720 --> 00:40:55,280 expressed through redeemed people because the same Lord who 657 00:40:55,280 --> 00:41:02,840 purchased us by His blood has committed himself to the 658 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:08,640 cleansing of us by His Spirit that we received. 659 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,760 He increases our love. Brother Reese, so that our 660 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,880 hearts may be established, steady, settled, however you 661 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:21,280 want to say it, unblameable in holiness when he returns. 662 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:24,800 So I'm not called sister, same. I'm not called to manufacture 663 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:31,080 holiness, but to live within what God has already claimed as 664 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:32,520 His own. You're mine. 665 00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:36,840 The bottle belongs to Him. The cleansing is going on. 666 00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:43,960 And the purpose then is that revelation of Him in US if we in 667 00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,120 bow our heads today. I just want to ask you a few 668 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,960 things for prodding our hearts and minds this morning that even 669 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,040 this morning, it doesn't matter how long we've been a part of 670 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,400 the church or we've been say so and so forth. 671 00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:59,320 We can take a moment to examine our hearts today in our life and 672 00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:03,960 ask God, God, show me where I've already made some strides in 673 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:08,360 holiness, but also God show me areas where you're still pulling 674 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:12,560 me and making me and want me to become Lord more clean. 675 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:15,960 You can look at your life today and and see where there's been a 676 00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,440 pursuit of holiness intentionally. 677 00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,000 Amen. And we're thankful for that, 678 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:25,640 that positional work of being a new born again Christian and the 679 00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:27,960 the holiness that comes with that. 680 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,520 But we also didn't have a development of holiness of our 681 00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:35,080 life through obedience and reverence and daily and it is 682 00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:37,320 folks. It's a daily surrender that we 683 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:41,280 live unto the Lord and we're thankful all we want to talk all 684 00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:44,400 day long about the love of God, but we also must realize that 685 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,720 the love of God is trying to establish something in us, 686 00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:51,120 something that's unblameable, something that is pure, 687 00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:54,280 something that is set apart, something that is distinct. 688 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:57,360 And so as we go forth from this place, I know we have no service 689 00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:00,840 tonight, but as we go forth from this place this evening, we want 690 00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,320 to live as a vessel like that old bottle that's meant to be 691 00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:06,560 seen. What is inside of us. 692 00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:08,800 We want to commit, Lord, this week. 693 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:14,400 Here's a good prayer, Lord, if there's anything that's unlike 694 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:21,200 you, if there's anything unlike you in my life, help me with 695 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,120 that. I'm telling you folks, and you 696 00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:26,960 might think this is just humorous, but I'm just being 697 00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:31,320 honest with you. The next morn, Friday morn after 698 00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:35,080 or Thursday morn after the bad attitude, Dad with the car and 699 00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:44,400 the keys, I sat down in my chair and my bedroom and the first 700 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,960 thing out of my mouth was talking to God about my bad 701 00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:52,520 attitude on that street. And I cried like a baby because 702 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:57,600 it wasn't right. What was it I was saying? 703 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:03,720 God, I need cleansed. Make me. 704 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:13,480 Make me, I'm just like, thank God it was so late and didn't 705 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:15,160 have everybody out in their yards, you know? 706 00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:24,840 And make me, I'm on a journey. You're on a journey. 707 00:44:25,720 --> 00:44:28,960 None of us have a place to get in where we can look down our 708 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:34,480 nose at anybody else. Maybe your Holiness aspects you 709 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,080 have trouble with are things that can be seen and heard. 710 00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:40,440 Maybe someone else's things that nobody can see or hear, but 711 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:47,280 they're still a struggle. Yes, yes, yes. 712 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:52,040 Can we just raise our hands right now to the Lord God? 713 00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:56,040 I belong to you and you're the Holy One. 714 00:44:57,080 --> 00:45:01,360 I belong to you, God, and you're the Holy One. 715 00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:05,600 You're the absolute epitome of holiness, God. 716 00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:09,120 Yet you have given me your Holy Spirit. 717 00:45:09,720 --> 00:45:14,840 You have given me the Holy Ghost God, what's been worked inside 718 00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:18,040 of me, let it work through me. Let it work outside of me, God, 719 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,440 so others can witness. Others can witness. 720 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:25,840 The change that has happened on the inside has impacted every 721 00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:29,960 aspect and area of my life. And that doesn't bring glory to 722 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:33,400 me. That brings glory to you, That 723 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:37,640 gives honor to you, That brings respect unto you. 724 00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:46,400 Hallelujah, Jesus, come on somebody here I am, Lord. 725 00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,640 God, don't stop working on me. Don't stop working on me, God. 726 00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:53,560 I want to be obedient and I want to be reverent and I want to 727 00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:55,200 follow God. Where you leading? 728 00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,640 Hallelujah, Here I am, Lord, Here I am, Here I am. 729 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:01,960 Hallelujah. These altars are open this 730 00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:03,720 morning. Brother Alex is playing today.